Ever since Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai revealed that rules put in place in 2015 for a free and open Internet will be undone, there has been an almost constant stream of criticism. That criticism reached its boiling point Wednesday.

Advocates of present net neutrality rules banded together in what was called a “Day of Action” in support of the idea that Internet service providers shouldn’t be able to favor their own or partners’ content with faster Internet bandwidth. Many of the world’s biggest websites spent the day running banners and pop-ups showing their disdain for any change in present regulations.

In April this year, Pai, who is a former Verizon Communications Inc. employee,  said he would “fire up the weed whacker” in reference to blasting away those regulations. It has become evident that in doing so, he and the current administration would be going against what it seems everyone wants, except for the cable companies that deregulation would benefit.

Consumer advocacy groups, free speech activists, some of the web’s biggest sites, much of the public and even British comedian John Oliver have rallied against the proposed changes from the start. This week, as the first deadline looms regarding the rule changes, the voices of dissent have never been more outspoken.

Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckberberg wrote on his feed, “We strongly support those rules. We’re also open to working with members of Congress and anyone else on laws to protect net neutrality.”

Google Inc. in a blog post wrote that an open Internet “has grown to become an unrivalled source of choice, competition, innovation, free expression, and opportunity. And it should stay that way.”

For its part, Twitter Inc. wrote a compelling post on the necessity of the “free flow of information,” and how the proposed changes could be become oppressive to content providers and also consumers. “Net neutrality is essential for the more than 3.2 billion people across the globe who use the Internet, which touches nearly all aspects of the global economy,” wrote Twitter’s public policy manger Lauren Culbertson.

Apart from a long list of Internet companies, activists such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union also aired their views concerning the dangers behind Pai’s proposals. Even the man behind the world wide web, Tim Berners Lee, said in no uncertain terms: “If we lost net neutrality, we lose the Internet as we know it.”

Politicians have also been outspoken. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said he believes the current campaign’s strength will cause ripples in Washington D.C. Other Democrats have been equally outspoken.

According to reports, more than 6 million people have left comments on the FCC’s website, and that number is expected to rise dramatically after all the publicity this week. The majority of the public are against the changes, as a Mozilla-made nine-hour video of pro-net neutrality messages demonstrates.

Meanwhile, voices of consent regarding the proposed dismantling of the rules have been hard to find.

Still, the key question remains how effective the Day of Action, which in some ways was more a Day of Words, will be. Some observers think it won’t make much difference, at least near-term.

Image: battleforthenet.com